o draw nigher than I could
wish. I would esteem myself greatly favored by a few lines
informing me of your motions when they are settled; since
visiting you, should I go north, or attending you if you come
this way, are my two grand plans of amusement.
What think you of our politics now? Had I been within reach of
you, or any of the chosen, I suspect the taking of Valenciennes
would have been sustained as a reason for examining the contents
of t'other bottle, which has too often suffered for slighter
pretences. I have little {p.202} doubt, however, that by the
time we meet in glory (terrestrial glory, I mean) Dunkirk will be
an equally good apology. Adieu, my good friend; remember me
kindly to Mr. Robertson, to Linton, and to the Baronet. I
understand both these last intend seeing you soon. I am very
sincerely yours,
WALTER SCOTT.
[Footnote 112: Dr. Robertson was tutor to the Laird of
Simprim, and afterwards minister of Meigle--a man of great
worth, and an excellent scholar. In his younger days he was
fond of the theatre, and encouraged and directed _Simprim,
Grogg, Linton & Co._ in their histrionic
diversions.--(1839.)]
The winter of 1793-94 appears to have been passed like the preceding
one: the German class resumed their sittings; Scott spoke in his
debating club on the questions of Parliamentary Reform and the
Inviolability of the Person of the First Magistrate, which the
circumstances of the time had invested with extraordinary interest,
and in both of which he no doubt took the side adverse to the
principles of the English, and the practice of the French Liberals.
His love-affair continued on exactly the same footing as before;--and
for the rest, like the young heroes in Redgauntlet, he "swept the
boards of the Parliament House with the skirts of his gown; laughed,
and made others laugh; drank claret at Bayle's, Fortune's, and
Walker's, and eat oysters in the Covenant Close." On his desk "the
new novel most in repute lay snugly intrenched beneath Stair's
Institute, or an open volume of Decisions;" and his dressing-table was
littered with "old play-bills, letters respecting a meeting of the
Faculty, Rules of the Speculative, Syllabus of Lectures--all the
miscellaneous contents of a young advocate's pocket, which contains
everything but briefs a
|